Selectors API

I wish to comment on the recommendation that NodeLists returned by  
the selectors API will be static.

I feel this removes one of the great benefits of live collections,  
that is, that once a collection is created, it is automatically  
updated by the browser itself.  This provides the possibility of  
creating a collection once and reusing it without having to create it  
again.

If the static NodeList model is maintained, it either means that the  
NodeList will have to be re-created every time a function wishes to  
access it, or separate native functions will have to be written to  
update the collection as the document is modified.  The second  
approach is clearly less than optimal as there may be functions  
modifying the document that the native methods aren't aware of.

I suspect there are two motivations for the choice of static  
collections:

1.  A number of popular javascript libraries have selector APIs that  
return static arrays, therefore a change to live collections would  
place them at a disadvantage

2. Novice script writers are confused by live collections

In regard to the first issue, I believe it can be worked around quite  
simply by those libraries providing an option to return live or  
static collections.  Then users have the choice of which type they want.

For the second issue, it is a matter of user (i.e. script programmer)  
education.  The current libraries hide live collections behind APIs  
that return static collections, often novices start out using a  
library and are never exposed to live NodeLists.  Also, there are  
only a limited number of live collections and their use has not been  
greatly exploited.

I have been told that the reason for not having live collections is  
for performance, but I find that hard to understand.  The current  
live collections are much faster than their native javascript  
emulations, I can't see that getting a collection every time it is  
required will be faster than getting it once and using it many times.

For your consideration.

Robert Green

Received on Monday, 23 March 2009 12:40:43 UTC